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A Toronto District School Board trustee hopes her proposal to discuss creating an integrity commissioner for the board could lead her colleagues to behave more respectfully.

Sheila Cary-Meagher, Ward 16, plans to present her motion at the board’s next meeting in April. She said she has almost unanimous support and hopes an integrity commissioner could help enforce a new code of conduct for the TDSB.

“We have reached a point where it is not possible for the internal relationships to do what is needed,” Cary-Meagher said. “There are people that are just out of control.”

She and some colleagues will run through a preview of the motion at a news conference at the TDSB Education Centre Monday afternoon.

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Her motion comes after chair Chris Bolton requested two police officers to stand watch over the board’s last meeting earlier this month following complaints of trustees insulting and intimidating each other and staff members.

Aside from regulating behaviour, an integrity commissioner could advise trustees on possible conflicts of interest, Cary-Meagher said, as is common for several other government bodies including the city of Toronto.

“It isn’t as though we need help for everybody, but we need help for the board as an entity,” she said. “If we don’t start the ball rolling, then who else can?”

It’s not clear yet where the money for an integrity commissioner would come from, Cary-Meagher said, which is why it must be investigated.

At its last meeting, the TDSB passed its first balanced budget in the 16 years since its creation that didn’t require any cuts, facing a deficit of $12.5 million compared to recent shortfalls of up to $110 million.

But Cary-Meagher said the problems are too serious to ignore.

“I think that it is so interfering with the work of the board that it is money that we need to invest,” Cary-Meagher said.

She said several trustees have signed on to support her motion, including Bolton, Chris Glover, John Hastings, Maria Rodrigues, Shaun Chen, and Chris Tonks.

The success of an integrity commissioner depends on how the idea is executed, said Trustee Howard Goodman, adding that he couldn’t comment on specifics because he hasn’t seen the motion Cary-Meagher plans to present.

“The details matter here,” he said, but in general, “anything we do that makes us more accountable and follow the rules better is an appropriate thing to do.”

Goodman recently apologized for an outburst that led director of education Donna Quan and three other staffers to complain to Bolton that intimidation and harassment from trustees are long-standing issues.

The argument revolved around the board’s overdue annual fees to the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association and it led to Bolton’s decision to call for a police presence at the March meeting. However, Goodman said he doesn’t believe he’s the reason behind Cary-Meagher’s motion.

“We’ve talked about this for a very long time,” he said, mentioning an audit last year that found several conflicts of interest within the TDSB, such as payments to charities with clear links to trustees or employees.

Cary-Meagher said she’s been suggesting the idea for five years.

“I never pursued it heavily because it just seemed like an uphill battle,” she said. “But in the last month, it has become clear that the process we're using is simply ineffective and actually damaging.”

She said the existing ethics committee is problematic because its members can also be offenders. “We need a third party outside the board structure to do what they do at city hall,” she said.

It has been an embarrassing month for the TDSB, Canada’s largest school board. Insiders have told the Star that some trustees routinely harangue staff, scream at them, hurl insults and phone them after hours with demands.

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